Iran Accused of Hiring Criminal Gangs for Overseas Assassination Plots

 

Masked members of Serbia’s criminal task force escort two arrested suspects linked to an attempted assassination of an Iranian exile in Stockholm on May 2, 2025. Swedish police say the men were hired by foreign intelligence. (Photo: Martin Vahlstrom/Getty)

By Naomi Ellis | Senior International Security Correspondent

LONDON — Western intelligence officials have accused the Iranian government of outsourcing overseas assassinations and surveillance missions to criminal gangs across Europe, North America, and Latin America — a chilling development that experts say marks a dangerous evolution in Tehran’s covert operations.

A classified joint intelligence report compiled by the UK’s MI6, the CIA, and several European agencies — portions of which were leaked to The Global Tribune — alleges that Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and its elite Quds Force have increasingly relied on “non-state criminal proxies” to carry out targeted operations against dissidents, journalists, former regime officials, and Israeli-linked businesspersons abroad.

According to the report, at least 13 assassination attempts or “violent intimidation missions” over the past two years bear the fingerprints of Iranian intelligence but were executed by hired operatives from Balkan mafias, Mexican cartels, and Eastern European smuggling syndicates.

The Stockholm Plot: A Wake-Up Call

The report gained traction following a recent thwarted attack in Stockholm, where Swedish police arrested two Serbian nationals armed with silenced pistols outside the home of an exiled Iranian opposition figure. Swedish prosecutors now believe the hit was orchestrated through intermediaries linked to Iran’s Quds Force and laundered through cryptocurrency payments traced to Tehran-affiliated digital wallets.

“This wasn’t just an assassination attempt,” said Swedish Interior Minister Lena Hallengren. “It was state-sponsored terror wearing the mask of street crime.”

Similar cases have emerged in Canada, the UK, and Colombia, including:

• A failed kidnapping attempt in Toronto targeting a journalist with dual Iranian-Canadian citizenship. The assailants, arrested in March, had ties to a Latin American smuggling gang previously implicated in narcotics and contract killings.

• A London-based cyber activist who survived a knife attack in his apartment lobby. British police confirmed the attacker was paid in Bitcoin and had traveled from Albania days before the incident.

• Colombian authorities investigating a 2024 double homicide in Bogotá now believe the victims — Iranian-born entrepreneurs — may have been targeted due to suspected collaboration with Israeli firms.

Western Response: A Growing Security Challenge

The revelations have alarmed Western governments, who now face the dual threat of traditional espionage combined with transnational crime networks. Officials warn that criminal outsourcing offers Iran deniability, speed, and a disturbing degree of brutality.

“Using gangs allows Iran to extend its reach while avoiding the diplomatic fallout of deploying official agents,” said Gen. Marcus Dean, former director of operations at the CIA. “It’s cheaper, faster, and harder to trace — until now.”

In Washington, the U.S. State Department issued a rare statement condemning the alleged operations and warning allies to “enhance security for citizens and residents critical of Tehran’s regime.”

Iran Denies Allegations

Iran has categorically denied the accusations. In a statement issued through its embassy in Vienna, the Islamic Republic labeled the report “a fabrication designed to defame Iran’s peaceful international image.”

“These accusations are not only false but deeply irresponsible,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani. “Iran does not engage in extraterritorial violence — unlike some of its accusers.”

However, Western officials say Tehran’s fingerprints are hard to miss.

“From payment trails to phone intercepts, the evidence is mounting,” said an anonymous French intelligence source. “This isn’t rogue elements. This is a policy.”

Experts Warn of Dangerous Precedent

Security analysts warn that if this model is left unchecked, it could become a playbook for authoritarian regimes worldwide.

“What Iran is doing here is outsourcing repression,” said Dr. Fiona Tashjian, a global security scholar at King’s College London. “It reduces risk for them, but increases risk for all of us — especially dissidents who thought they were safe in exile.”

Rights groups have urged the United Nations to conduct an independent investigation into the use of international crime groups as tools of state terror.

“This could be the beginning of a dark new era,” said Amnesty International’s senior advisor Hamed Rezaei. “If nations begin adopting gang violence as policy, the very concept of asylum and refuge could collapse.”

A New Frontier in Espionage

As investigations deepen, more countries are reassessing their protocols for protecting exiled dissidents and dual nationals. Intelligence-sharing between Western and Latin American law enforcement has already intensified, and sanctions targeting Iranian-linked cryptocurrency laundering are being drafted in Brussels and Washington.

But the question remains: how many more plots are already in motion?